Iron Wolf Brigade (Destro's Cold Weather Unit)

This was a joint project I completed with my friend and fellow HissTank member KingBiohazerd. We'd recently been discussing environment-specific variations of Iron Grenadier vehicles and decided to create an IG Cold Weather Brigade, including an arctic variant of the D.E.M.O.N.!



The King provided all of the vehicles and the figures, so he'll be the one to keep them now that they are complete.



The base vehicles were not changed in any way, we just repainted them. For the D.E.M.O.N., we used pre-cut strips of painter's tape to make the camouflage pattern. While it's official name is the D.E.M.O.N.- AV (Arctic Variant), we figured that the troops of the Iron Wolf Brigade would have nicknamed it the Yeti, after the legendary snow demon of the Himalayas.



The Despoiler was also painted white and silver, but was not given the same camouflage treatment as the Yeti, because we figured it would actually make the vehicle more visible during flight.



The King had recently discovered the Cobra Black Dragon Trooper (which is a re-paint of the original Ferret figure) online and really liked the look of it. The color scheme for the Arctic Ferret was taken largely from that figure. The other Iron Wolf Troopers were painted in a manner that matched the Ferret, more or less.



We had a blast making these, so we really hope you enjoy them!

Skidmark (G.I. Joe Vehicle Specialist)

I recently accepted a commission from a fellow HissTank.com member to make custom figures of Muskrat, Cross-Country and Skidmark. I already had a Muskrat custom that I was happy with, but I decided to make my own versions of the other two figures while working on the commission pieces. The biggest change you'll notice with Skidmark is that I eliminated the orange from his color scheme. The dark green sweater and the green trousers were color-matched as closely as possible to the original ARAH figure. However, I decided to go with more practical colors for the helmet, vest, boots and thigh rigs.

Parts: Head (25th Anniversary Breaker), Body (25th Anniversary Beachhead), Vest (25th Anniversary Outback), Sunglasses (RoC Baroness v13), Helmet (bbi Elite Force).

Desert Fox 6 W.D.

This is another commission vehicle. The customer asked for the vehicle to be "battle-weathered". He was extremely generous in providing advance payment, which exceeded what I thought the job was worth - so I plan to exceed his expectations, as well!

To begin with, I broke the whole vehicle down and removed the decals. The decal residue was cleaned off using Goo Gone and then all of the parts were washed with dish detergent and a toothbrush. While the parts were drying, I hopped online and sent an e-mail off to Ruben Jiminez, my normal source, asking him to ship me a set of Desert Fox decals.

Once everything was dry, I used an X-acto knife to trim down the foot pegs on the gun mount. They no longer look quite as tidy as the original mold did, but they now accommodate the foot holes for the modern era figures, so the customer will be able to pose those figures on it.

The next step was priming and painting the missiles, machine gun and gun mount. The missiles were done with flat OD green and were given details in yellow (these are the colors commonly used on High Explosive ordnance in the US military). The gun was done with a metallic "gunmetal" finish and the gun mount was done with OD green with a drybrushing of gunmetal to show wear on the paint.

While the spray-painted parts were drying, the entire vehicle was given the metaliic drybrush treatment. High-traffic areas where troops would be climbing in and out were also "scuffed up" to show where dirt, grime, sweat and other stuff adhered to the vehicle's paint. The pic to the right shows the vehicle as it was at this point.

TigerFish Conversion

This post documents the step-by-step process I used to convert a regular G.I. Joe DevilFish into a TigerFish. The vehicle was commissioned by a fellow HissTank member for his son and I hope the running post will allow him to share the process with his son. Here is a shot of all the various pieces, before work began:

And here is everything after the spray-painting was completed:

The next step will be painting all of the sculpted details on the upper and lower hull pieces!

















The buyer asked that I paint the torpedoes red to match the missiles, so I'll take care of that and the detailing of the twin cannons tomorrow. After these little things, I just have to wait on the stickers to arrive.













So the stickers finally arrived and I've got them all applied. I realized that I still haven't painted the torpedoes red, so I'll have to do that before I can apply the sealant.

Oktober Guard

My very first issue of the classic G.I. Joe comic was #6, which introduced the Oktober Guard. To this day, that is one of my all-time favorite Joe stories and the Oktober Guard have a special place in my heart. The recipes for these figures were blatantly stolen from the exquisite work of several different HissTank customizers - all I really did was assemble the parts and paint them.

Colonel Brekhov (Team Commander)

















Daina (Sniper)

















Horror Show (Anti-Armor)

















Stormavik (Naval Infantry)

















Dragonsky (Flame Weapons Specialist)

















Schrage (Machinegunner)


























The first time I saw the PoC VAMP, the color and aesthetic reminded me of something the Oktober Guard would have driven. When I started work on these guys, I set about obtaining a VAMP for them. The Oktober Guard logos are decals from CobraStickers.

Quarrel (Covert Operative)

Until recently, I never even knew that Action Force existed. While I still have no overwhelming love for them, I do seem to like new characters. This is a variation on the figure that will be offered by the G.I. Joe Collector's Club - same Scarlett figure repainted in Quarrel's colors, but I decided that I have enough Scarlett heads in my collection so I looked for something different. I thought that the Mrs Coulter head sculpt from the Golden Compass toy line looked sufficiently sophisticated to be a British covert operative.

Tomax & Xamot (Crimson Guard Commanders)

Today seems to have been a day of headswaps and minor repaints...

I did not have a modern era version of either of these guys and I never cared for the whole circus acrobat look they sported in the 80's, so I decided to make them a little more "tactical". This is just Tomax and Xamot's heads on a couple of Shock Trooper bodies. I painted the kneepads and belts with the colors from their original outfits to keep a little of the vintage look about them...

Kickstart (G.I. Joe Vehicle Specialist)

Kickstart was released during 2010 with the G.I. Joe Steel Marauder Mech. I have never liked mechs in my G.I. Joe world, but I always like new characters, so I simply re-designated Kickstart as a standard Motor Transport guy. The paint apps on the original figure sucked, so I touched them up a bit. Nothing too drastic, but there's really no reason to NOT paint the skin when it's quite obvious that it should have been.

Gnawgahyde (Dreadnok)

Gnawgahyde was never my favorite Dreadnok, but I had to get around to making him eventually. I decided to abandon the yellow vest and go with something a bit more practical. I think he looks a bit more realistic now...

Parts: Head (SDS), Hat & Rifle (PoC Recondo), Body & Vest (PoC Zartan), Bow & Quiver (PoC Shadow Tracker), Boars (Unknown).

Kay-Strike (G.I. Joe Demolitions Specialist)

This is my entry for the Mission Prospect Custom Contest Part II at Custom Figure Wars. Her name is Kay-Strike. She blows things up. She loves popsicles and cookies. Her vehicle is called "The Pinkinator".

Kwik Blast (G.I. Joe Urban Warfare Specialist)

This is my entry for the Mission Prospect Custom Contest Part II at Custom Figure Wars. His name is Kwik Blast and he is an urban warfare specialist. That means he is good at fighting in the city. His vehicle is called the Devastator.

Tinker (G.I. Joe Vehicle Design Engineer)

This is my entry for the Mission Prospect Custom Contest Part II at Custom Figure Wars.

VEHICLE DESIGN ENGINEER
Code Name:	TINKER
File Name:	Walker, Kristina K.
SN:	345-98-DD08
Primary Military Specialty:	Motor Transport
Secondary Military Specialty:	Computer-Aided Design
Birthplace:	New Orleans, Louisiana
Grade:	GS-12 (DoD Civilian Employee)
Tinker was recruited right out of MIT and had no military experience prior to joining the G.I. Joe team. Her ability to design combat systems in her head made her one of the few “exceptional” individuals to be considered for such a move. She underwent the basic orientation course (which the most seasoned of combat veterans would find difficult to say the least) and made it through on sheer guts.
Tinker has always enjoyed trying new things. While in school, she saw an advertisement for one of those robotic combat contests in which the designers attempt to dismantle each other’s creations by remote control and thought it would be “fun” to give it a shot. She left all of her competition in smoldering piles and one of the weapon systems she designed for that contest is still classified by the Pentagon. It was pure coincidence that an unidentified member of the Joe team was in attendance and submitted her name for review immediately after returning to the Pit. Tinker now spends her days dreaming up new and better ways to enhance the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Joes’ vehicle fleet.

Iron Grenadier Mortar Section

I've been toying with the idea of these guys for quite a while and only recently decided on a final plan for them. This is one of the Iron Grenadiers 60mm Mortar Section. Each mortar team consists of a gunner and an assistant gunner. The section leader computes a forward unit's call-for-fire into firing data which is communicated to each mortar team. He also functions as a forward observer, if necessary. After receiving the firing data, the gunner places it on his mortar's sight unit and prepares the weapon for firing. The assistant gunner prepares the ammunition and loads the weapon upon command.











And here they are "in action"...

Outside Prypyat, Sgt Humpty's 60mm Mortar Section prepares to fire in support of Darklon's men...


The gunners quickly check the deflection and elevation data on their gun sights, while the assistant gunners prepare the required number of rounds and remove the safety wires...


The assistant gunners "half-load" their first rounds and at their section leader's command, both mortar crews fire 4 rounds of High Explosive at Cobra troops over 3 kilometers away...


After expending their designated 4 rounds, both gunners signal "rounds complete" to Sgt Humpty, who passes the report by radio to Darklon.


Darklon responds that the fire mission was successful in disrupting the ambush and his men are now holding against the Cobra troops. Sgt Humpty gives the command "displace", letting his crews know to break down the mortars and prepare to move out quickly.


Sgt Humpty leads his section to a pre-designated rally point, where they will meet up with additional Grenadier forces and await their next fire mission.

Annihilator v2 (Iron Grenadier Heli-Assault Trooper)

When I first started army-building Iron Grenadiers, many of the custom figures I created were closely based on the original versions from the late 1980's. Since then, my tastes have evolved somewhat and I'm looking to give my forces a modern upgrade. During July, I introduced my Iron Grenadier Highlanders and earlier this month I debuted my new TARGAT's. Now I give you my upgraded versions of Destro's Elite Helicopter-Assault Troops, the Annihilators...

Parts: Head (25th Anniversary Para-Viper), Helmet (RoC Aqua-Viper Officer), Body (RoC Air Viper v3 or RoC Air Viper v5), Torso Armor, Submachinegun & Heli-pack (25th Anniversary Specialist Trakker).

The Annihilator in the red flightsuit is the unit commander. The idea of giving the Officers different colored flightsuits originally came from my having a lot of trouble acquiring as many as I wanted of the other version. As of this posting, I've only finished off the three in the photos, but I have enough parts on-hand or pending through trades to knock out at least two more trooper versions.

As ridiculously simple as this recipe is, doesn't it kinda make you wish Hasbro would throw these guys together and give us a carded version at retail?

Edit 06/15/2012: Followers of my fan-fic blog, Tales from Castle Destro recognize the first four Annihilators as characters from those stories - Colonel Nero, Captain Starbuck, Lieutenant Wang and Lieutenant Wert.  During one story, the group is deployed to the jungle country of Sierra Muerte, during which time they adopt a more tactically sound uniform.  This figure is the only one of these I've made and it could honestly be any of the four existing characters.

Scrap Iron (Iron Grenadier Weapons Designer)

Back in 1984, Scrap Iron's original filecard indicated that before joining Cobra he'd been a weapons designer for Destro's M.A.R.S. Corporation. So, I decided to add him to my Iron Grenadier forces. The entire figure is a RoC Scrap Iron, that I repainted to suit my tastes.

Detonator (Iron Grenadier Demolitions Specialist)

This character was created by HissTank RPG Gamemaster cobralalalala! as part of the next game scenario. I decided to make a custom of the character so that I could include him in photos I planned to take for the upcoming game.

Parts: Head (Resolute Duke v30), Goggles (RoC Red Fang Ninja) Body (PoC H.I.S.S. Tank Driver), Lower legs (25th Anniversary Destro v21), Belt (25th Anniversary Cobra Commander v28), Shoulder Pauldron (25th Anniversary Iron Grenadier v6), Backpack (PoC Duke v42), M41A Pulse Rifle (Marauder Gun Runners).

Iron Grenadier (Combat Surgeon)

This is the third in a series of Iron Grenadier support troops. This one is a Combat Surgeon. All Iron Grenadier combat troops have secondary training in first aid, but the Combat Surgeon has the primary responsibility of maximizing the unit's combat efficiency by keeping fingers on the triggers. Unlike most military medics, Iron Grenadier Combat Surgeons are recruited from the medical profession and then given combat training.

Parts: Head (25th Anniversary Iron Grenadier Officer), Body & Webgear (RoC M.A.R.S. Trooper), Holstered Pistol (RoC Cobra Eel), Various Pouches (bbi Elite Force).